So a guy that married 2 times and divorced 2 times, has 3 children, recommends that the sweet spot for productivity is 60 hours per week, which would mean about 12h/day if you work 5 days or 10h/day if you work 6 days. This means, if you start your work at 8, you finish either at 20:00 or 18:00 + 30-60min lunch break. With such a packed day I can only imagine what a stellar childhood will his kids get assuming he wants to be involved in rising them...
I'm sure most people wouldn't outright say that, but I have no doubt that many corporate leadership types think that way. After all, the C-suite has higher incidences of NPD and ASPD so it shouldn't be surprising. Along with being out of touch, some of them probably think their peons should have the means to do the same.
The other part of the recommendation is "at the office 5 days a week". Working more than 40 hours and spending meaningful time with your kids is very possible, if you aren't wasting 2 hours a day commuting and you have a flexible schedule and you have a partner who can also spend time with the kids.
But he's also not recommending 40 hours, he's recommending 150% of that. Even then, I'd assume that when he says "sweet spot" he's also talking about a median, meaning you'll have to put in additional hours sometimes.
There's a reason why execs get perks - free housing, transportation, personal assistants, etc are all common things at the VP and up level for these large corportations. The whole reason for that is to free up time so they can work 60 hour weeks.
For a standard IC, that's not the case. Life takes time. You can do it, but it will be at the cost of those around you. I spent the last ~2 years working 60-80 hour weeks at Figma. At one point my boss asked me to work from my honeymoon. My life, health, and relationships suffered because of the pressure I was putting on others as a result of that.
If Google wants and expects that out of their ICs, they need to provide the same level of accomidation they do for execs, otherwise it just comes off as an exec being out of touch with the needs of every day life.
Where actually went all the productivity gains of the last decades? Isn't that supposed to decrease the amount of labor we humans have to do eventually?
Most frequent answer to this is: "But look we have all the high tech everyone of us can afford easily". But that cannot be the answer, because even if I choose to live like a luddite hermit while working 40h a week, I'm still not becoming super rich or can afford a house, which people my age could do 50 years ago.
So the productivity gains went elsewhere. The question is, into whose pocket? I guess into the pockets of those people who demand we should work even more than 40h a week.
Part of the productivity gains did go to workers. Depending on the country that's somewhere between 0% (Japan) and ~70%. The US seems to sit at 10-20%. The remainder is pocketed by others.
The frog was smart enough to hop out, and only stopped when just this side of lobotomized. The story doesn't match, and it's because frogs are smart enough to leave when they recognize their environment is not amenable to their continued existance
It's comforting to blame it on "MBAs", but i think it's pretty clear that silicon valley has been entirely captured by the "hardcore grindset" segment of the manosphere.
Our heros fought and died for 8-hour working days and when we stop fighting, we go back to 12-hour working days! That is why you need to search for theinternationalism.org
With declining birth rates big corporations might get the idea that "you know, child labour isn't really a big problem today with the extra precautions we take"
At the same time having these large companies that operate in emerging economies where they hide under the rug all child work exploitation.
60 hours, hmm. Does he pay overtime? Does he increase stock options, ideally grants? Is the project horribly behind time or features? Or, is he just an asshole who feels he can replace workers as needed?
Obviously ageist, probably anti-partner. Does this include commute time, or is this gratis?
The original Fortune piece was February 2025, apparently.
I have a hard time getting worked up about this. This is a team where the median engineer is probably approaching 7-figures total comp, working on a strategic project comparable to the iPhone—or at least Google sure thinks so.
They all have plenty of other options (albeit probably not as prestigious or high paying) if they want to level down their expectations.
> In an internal memo to employees who work on Gemini, Google cofounder Sergey Brin recommended being in the office at least every weekday and said 60 hours is the “sweet spot” for productivity, according to the New York Times.
If, like Brin, you're the boss and you can delegate all the unpleasant parts of work to your minions then why not work 60 hours only in the pleasant parts (including having sex with a marketing manager) and, still, cash billions?
I work to live and not to make a billionaire even richer off my back. The rank and file who are clued in don't spew this dross but those with most to gain do. You can always tell those with skin in the game.
So a guy that married 2 times and divorced 2 times, has 3 children, recommends that the sweet spot for productivity is 60 hours per week, which would mean about 12h/day if you work 5 days or 10h/day if you work 6 days. This means, if you start your work at 8, you finish either at 20:00 or 18:00 + 30-60min lunch break. With such a packed day I can only imagine what a stellar childhood will his kids get assuming he wants to be involved in rising them...
This is pretty much 996, which is illegal even in China (though apparently a sizable share of companies are still practicing it).
Just pay for a nanny, bro. /s
I'm sure most people wouldn't outright say that, but I have no doubt that many corporate leadership types think that way. After all, the C-suite has higher incidences of NPD and ASPD so it shouldn't be surprising. Along with being out of touch, some of them probably think their peons should have the means to do the same.
The other part of the recommendation is "at the office 5 days a week". Working more than 40 hours and spending meaningful time with your kids is very possible, if you aren't wasting 2 hours a day commuting and you have a flexible schedule and you have a partner who can also spend time with the kids.
> Working more than 40 hours
But he's also not recommending 40 hours, he's recommending 150% of that. Even then, I'd assume that when he says "sweet spot" he's also talking about a median, meaning you'll have to put in additional hours sometimes.
For an exec, it is, and he is 100% correct.
There's a reason why execs get perks - free housing, transportation, personal assistants, etc are all common things at the VP and up level for these large corportations. The whole reason for that is to free up time so they can work 60 hour weeks.
For a standard IC, that's not the case. Life takes time. You can do it, but it will be at the cost of those around you. I spent the last ~2 years working 60-80 hour weeks at Figma. At one point my boss asked me to work from my honeymoon. My life, health, and relationships suffered because of the pressure I was putting on others as a result of that.
If Google wants and expects that out of their ICs, they need to provide the same level of accomidation they do for execs, otherwise it just comes off as an exec being out of touch with the needs of every day life.
How many hours per week was he working when having an affair with the Google Glass marketing manager? [1]
[1] https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2014/04/sergey-brin-amanda-...
The answer to that question depends on if you count hours spent sleeping with your employees as “working”
This always pissed me off with these executives who consider skiiing in vail as work time business meetings.
I'd count it towards the daily cardio target as well.
Every minute counts as three. You'd be crazy not to use that productivity hack.
Where actually went all the productivity gains of the last decades? Isn't that supposed to decrease the amount of labor we humans have to do eventually?
Most frequent answer to this is: "But look we have all the high tech everyone of us can afford easily". But that cannot be the answer, because even if I choose to live like a luddite hermit while working 40h a week, I'm still not becoming super rich or can afford a house, which people my age could do 50 years ago.
So the productivity gains went elsewhere. The question is, into whose pocket? I guess into the pockets of those people who demand we should work even more than 40h a week.
Part of the productivity gains did go to workers. Depending on the country that's somewhere between 0% (Japan) and ~70%. The US seems to sit at 10-20%. The remainder is pocketed by others.
There is a book, called "The Price of Tomorrow". Talking about this specific problem. TLDR: Inflation
Excellent take.
What are we, as a society, gaining from working this much?
Billionaires is the only answer at this point.
Remember when Google used to be considered one of the cushier places to work?
Not a fan of how big tech has become the parable of the frog in slowly boiling water.
The frog was smart enough to hop out, and only stopped when just this side of lobotomized. The story doesn't match, and it's because frogs are smart enough to leave when they recognize their environment is not amenable to their continued existance
id say its MBAs that do a ship of theasus replacement, like the borg, once an org demonstrates valuable progress.
Sergey Brin is hardly an MBA and has all the power and money to resist that pressure if he cared.
It's comforting to blame it on "MBAs", but i think it's pretty clear that silicon valley has been entirely captured by the "hardcore grindset" segment of the manosphere.
Our heros fought and died for 8-hour working days and when we stop fighting, we go back to 12-hour working days! That is why you need to search for theinternationalism.org
With declining birth rates big corporations might get the idea that "you know, child labour isn't really a big problem today with the extra precautions we take"
At the same time having these large companies that operate in emerging economies where they hide under the rug all child work exploitation.
did they also work for 8 hours a day in the gulag?
60 hours, hmm. Does he pay overtime? Does he increase stock options, ideally grants? Is the project horribly behind time or features? Or, is he just an asshole who feels he can replace workers as needed?
Obviously ageist, probably anti-partner. Does this include commute time, or is this gratis?
On topic https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48267221
Dated August 2025
The original Fortune piece was February 2025, apparently.
I have a hard time getting worked up about this. This is a team where the median engineer is probably approaching 7-figures total comp, working on a strategic project comparable to the iPhone—or at least Google sure thinks so.
They all have plenty of other options (albeit probably not as prestigious or high paying) if they want to level down their expectations.
Probably 70 hours now.
> In an internal memo to employees who work on Gemini, Google cofounder Sergey Brin recommended being in the office at least every weekday and said 60 hours is the “sweet spot” for productivity, according to the New York Times.
What an arsehole.
Multi-billionaire says to work harder to make him richer faster. The sooner this attitude is recognised as a sickness the better.
[2025]
And he is absolutely right!
If, like Brin, you're the boss and you can delegate all the unpleasant parts of work to your minions then why not work 60 hours only in the pleasant parts (including having sex with a marketing manager) and, still, cash billions?
I mean but AI is replacing humans, so they should be able to work less hours.
Didn't he retire not so long ago?
Okay, so if Google wins AGI first, who is to say that AGI isn’t so disruptive, the government just nationalizes Google?
In dictatorship, the government nationalizes companies. In USA, the companies nationalize government.
I work to live and not to make a billionaire even richer off my back. The rank and file who are clued in don't spew this dross but those with most to gain do. You can always tell those with skin in the game.